A significant portion of MTN’s shareholders expressed their displeasure with the telecom giant’s executive pay packages in light of the company’s declining performance. The only executive receiving a bonus is Executive Chairman Phuthuma Nhleko who returned to the company after a long career at the company when the CEO who succeeded him abruptly resigned.

One of the big sighs of relief for the company was Nhleko leading the company through reducing a massive $5B fine the Nigerian government levied against the company to $1.7B for failing to disconnect well over 5 million people who weren’t subscribed to the company. Former US Attorney General Eric Holder negotiated the deal, which is interesting to write about today, as later today he will be delivering a report to Uber’s board of directors on the spate of sexual harassment allegations the company has been dealing with.

Anyway, Nhleko was the only executive to receive a bonus – nearly $3M, in addition to his $2M salary. I think that is well deserved even if he was being rated just for reducing the company’s fine.

Last week, I wrote about Microsoft announcing that it was constructing two data centers in South Africa. Here’s a nice interview with Ayotunde Coker, Managing Director of Rack Centre, a Nigeria-based data center company that sounds like it’s pulling its weight in the cloud space. Let’s see how they compete with Microsoft Azure!

Earlier today, Patricia de Lille, Cape Town’s Mayor spoke before the City Council providing a clear picture of how little water the city has available to use. What’s frustrating about this situation is the number of companies that have tried to find solutions to the water challenge in Cape Town and other parts of South Africa, in particular, using desalination techniques. The city has been dealing with low water levels for over a decade. Let’s hope the city figures out a solution sooner than later. It would be great to see desalination companies be able to scale in the country. I wonder how much engagement city has had with Israel and the U.A.E.